Apple Wins Second Rare Pre-Trial Injunction Against Samsung Phone

By Julie Kuehl

Jun 29th, 2012 8:52 PM EDT

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh issued the second pre-trial injunction of the week against Samsung, this time in regards to the Galaxy Nexus phone. The ban prohibits sale of the device in the U.S., and if upheld, represents a serious blow to the South Korea company. Earlier this week she also issued a pre-trial ban against the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Apple and Samsung, among others, have been duking it out in the courts around the world for years, but rarely does any side win two injunctions against the other of such scale in such a short amount of time. As a counterpoint, it was only last week when Apple had a setback when a case against Google’s Motorola Mobility was effectively dismissed by Chicago Federal Court Judge Richard Posner.

However, in today’s ruling, as reported by Reuters, Judge Koh stated “Apple has made a clear showing that, in the absence of a preliminary injunction, it is likely to lose substantial market share in the smartphone market and to lose substantial downstream sales of future smartphone purchases and tag-along products.”

As would be expected, both injunctions were immediately appealed by Samsung. Judge Koh indicated on Friday that she may rule on Samsung’s request to stay the Galaxy Tab injunction during appeal on Sunday, and she set a hearing for Monday to hear arguments for a similar request on the Glaaxy Nexus.

The new injunction will take effect once Apple posts a $95 million bond. If the injunction is overturned after it takes effect, the bond money could be used to pay damages to Samsung.